Of Multiple Paths
by ScoreCounter
Summary: Everyone has some sort of partner, an alliance. How happy is it, then, that everyone, even outside of these, has a common goal, so, even with these alliances divided, something can grow. A fanfiction slightly based of the Nonary Game of the Zero Escape series, minus the death. No Pairings, Loads of Friendship. (Reviews Highly Appreciated)
1. Light - Chapter 0

_**Of Multiple Paths**_

_Light – Prologue  
><em>**Something Unexpected**

It was a strange feeling - that was for sure. Usually, one would wake up, just as if fading between two sides of the world. But this time – it wasn't something which one could easily describe. It was almost like… swimming – no, drowning, but yet… not suffocating. And, then, at one random moment, you were brought up above the waves, leaving you covered in what you were one second ago immersed in, and still are, in a way. But then, as the waves recede, you suddenly realise that you are not where you were when you sank down. Clumsily, he flung one arm around himself, trying to get some semblance of grip on the floor. But, whilst his arm moved easily enough, the remainder of his body remained still, and unmoving. Slowly, he cracked his eyes open. What he saw was… unfamiliar, but not at all in a surprising or shocking way. His brain started to clear as he tried to familiarise himself with what he saw.

From his current position on his back, he could see that the room he was in was relatively nicely decorated – the ceiling was made out of some sort of translucent material, with dim lighting shining down through it, bathing the room in a slightly red tinted glow. But, then again, it wouldn't matter to much… the entire room was that colour. He slowly craned his neck to get a better view. To his left he saw a blue themed bed, breaking down that prior theory. Why he was not lying down on that remained unclear. He proceeded to glance to his right side…

A door. A rather simple one, white, with an electronic lock, and a simple plate labelling it. That was perplexing. After all, as far as he could tell, he was on the inside of the room. He squinted to see what the plate had inscribed on it –

Dormitory Room 7 – Link

He smiled to himself. Well, at least he remembered what is name was without the help of a sign. But that hardly mattered. Moving his arms again, he managed to get a stable position on the floor, lifting himself into a sitting position. However, around his left wrist, he felt a strange… pain, as if something was there, stuck onto it. Lifting it into his eye view, he saw that it was a watch. Or at least, that was what it looked like. Upon further inspection, he saw that this thing displayed more things than the time. It had a single LCD display, by the looks of it, showing five distinct readings – the time (09:24), his room number (or he assumed that, at least, as it said D7), what appeared to be his heart rate, a reading of "L2", and a red circle. The watch itself was coloured yellow. However, the strangest thing about it was that there was no latch or buckle. In fact, nothing to indicate the bracelet would slide or fall off. He held his arm up to eye level. His skin was flush to it. In other words, he wouldn't be able to pull it off either.

Another odd thing was that he was already fully clothed. Had he gone to bed fully clothed last night? Thinking about it, he thought so. Actually, the last things he remembered were rather strange.

_It was a relatively quiet night. Most of the younger or more child-like competitors had already turned in for the night, and the older ones were sat down, exchanging stories of their pasts. A few days before, Master Hand had officially announced that he figured out how to get characters into a universe in which they didn't belong, for any period of time, and without repercussion. Naturally, this excited a number of the older smashers, whom mostly were at that age of active and encouraged exploration. Oh, and a good old fashioned child-like "sleepover" mentality wasn't to go to miss either. _

_Anyway, Link found himself in that age old position of his eyes feeling as wrinkled as a Like-Like. Stretching his limbs, he half-yawned "By the goddesses, courage doesn't give you much worth against sleep. I'll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?" As he stood up, he noticed that Pit was mouthing to the others. Just as he was about to jokingly call him out, Marth (whom, as far as Link knew, was just at the other side of the room, tackled him from the back, but held him from falling over. Before he knew it, most of the other post-pubescent boys were surrounding him as well. "For crying out loud, are we having birthday hugs now?" He chortled over the seething mass of chuckling voices.  
>"Aw, and you thought we forgot, didn't ya!" Pit, obviously the leader of this plan shouted out. <em>

_Slowly, one by one, the other conspirators moved away, leaving Link to do what he initially intended. _

… _After Ike got his beats out on him, obviously._

_Slowly, he headed up to his shared room. As he opened it, an almost morose voice called out to him.  
>"So, he actually went ahead with it, huh?" Dark Pit was almost growing into an older-brother of Pit.<br>"Yeah. Not that I minded. Thanks for not spoiling it for me."  
>"Ugh, come on, I'm not that rude."<br>"Whatever you say, whatever you say." He could tell the dark angel was stifling a laugh.  
>"Well, whichever way you put it, there's something on the windowsill for you."<br>"Aw," Link teased, "you were kind enough to get your roomie a gift?"  
>"Well, I figured that I needed to get you something."<br>Link looked inside the box on the windowsill. A charm. Almost identical to the one that he gave the other two months ago, except this one had a small blue jewel set into it. Said jewel (Which was Black in the afore mentioned gift" was surrounded by a circle divided into 3 horizontally, and had smaller, similarly coloured jewels set around it. "Why… I knew you were a right softy, but you didn't have to go this far…"  
>Dark Pit stifled another laugh. "Well, I had to do something for the best room-mate I've had, didn't I?" Link put the charm onto the chain inside the box, and hung it around his neck. "But… yeah, you best not tell anyone right? Especially not my kid brother."<br>Link laughed. "Yes sir!" was sarcastically commented. "Well, I've got to keep you as a softy somehow, right? Come here."  
>Dark Pit knew what was coming, but he obliged anyway. The moment he stood up, Link returned to Dark Pit what the others had done to him mere moments ago. Not that the dark angel minded. They'd supported each other for the past year, and, to be honest, Dark Pit trusted Link. A lot. As in, more than his "Kid Brother".<br>"You'll visit Skyworld sometime, right?"  
>"As long as you go to Hyrule. There's one or two places I want to show you there as well, yanno."<br>Both of them laughed again. Slowly breaking off the… well, what could only be described as a friendly cuddle, they nodded, and lay back down on their beds. Link wrapped his hand around his new charm. "Goodnight. See ya in the morning."  
>Another stifled laugh. "I'd better."<em>

Link looked down at his chest. The charm was still there, but the blue gem shone… slightly brighter. None the less, Link knew that sitting around doing nothing was going to get him nowhere. Standing up, he saw something on the bed. It was… a screwdriver. Looking down at his arm again, he saw that the "Watch" had no screws on it. Searching around, he saw the plate on the door. Four screws.

They were off in a matter of minutes.

As the plate fell to the floor, there was a single object concealed within it. It was a card. Black, with white text stating "Proof of Regained Basic Cognition". Link shrugged. He guessed that this must be some sort of test, to make sure he could still think straight. He immediately figured that using this card on the lock would open the door.

5 seconds saw his logic proved right.  
>Quickly, he looked around the room, making sure he hadn't missed something. In a tall basket in the corner, he saw the Master Sword, still in its sheath. If it was there, it must have been there for a reason, right? As such, he put it on, before stepping out of the door.<p>

He stepped out into a long corridor. 9 other rooms lined it, from what he could count. He walked around, noting that each room had a number, and a name.

Mario -1

Ike -2

Shulk -3

Ness -4

Pit -5

R-O-B -6

Link -7

Pikachu -8

Kirby -9

Lastly, there was a single double door waiting for him at the end of the corridor. It simply was marked "Waiting Room." Since it was a plain corridor, and none of the other rooms had locks visible, his card had to work on this door, right?

Unlocking the door, he stepped into a room with nine seats, each with a symbol on them. Immediately, he was drawn to the mark of the Triforce. Figures. Everyone had a room, everyone has a seat. Since he had nothing better to do, he took his, and looked down at his watch. The room, obviously, had changed. It was now WR.

It wasn't until this point that he realised his "Room Mate" wasn't there. Once again, he looked down at the charm. He clasped it in his hands, closing his eyes. The next thing he knew? It was almost like he was drowning, yet, not suffocating…


	2. Monochrome - Chapter 0

**_Of Multiple Paths_**

_Monochrome – Prologue  
><em>**Revelation**

It had already been awhile since they'd all met up. Similar stories too.  
>"I woke up on the floor – you know… in those rooms."<br>"Yoshi, Yo-Ha… (Yeah, it was the same for me too - How they'd expected me to use a screwdriver properly, I have no idea…)"  
>"Ugh, what I don't know is how they expect me to sit around all this time." The sound of feet drumming rapidly on the floor.<br>The continuous clamour of voices often gives the people a headache… and it was no different for two certain people standing in the corner.  
>"Just remain calm… We've all seen worse than this…"<br>Oh, three apparently.  
>"Ready?"<br>"Yeah, when you are."  
>"Three… Two… One…"<br>"**Elwind!**"

As if on c- actually, no, **on cue**, a sharp breeze flew through the people in the room, causing them all to turn and look at the pair in the corner. The male awkwardly ruffled his hair whilst the female spoke, loud and commanding.  
>"Why must you all make such a racket? We're trying to think over here?"<br>The large room, Robin – the male Robin, that is, looked around the large room. Nine people adorned it. Each of them had told the same story (similar to that of Link's, if you must know, except everything – all the colours – were in grey scale. All of them woke up wearing some sort of enhanced chronometer, and, whilst all had similar readings, there was one that was different on all of them. It seemed random, until you realised that all of them had a prefix of "M", and a number – one to nine.  
>Robin thought it best to familiarise himself with them, just to be sure. He could remember them all already:<br>Samus, whom was in her "Zero Suit", i.e. decent, if skin-tight, casual wear, was M1.  
>Dark Pit, whom was spending most of his time brooding in the corner, was M2.<br>Mr. Game and Watch, whom no-one could figure out how that bracelet could remain attached, was M3.  
>Now, Robin – or, at least, his female counterpart, was strange. He had the reading of M4, and his 'clone' that of… nothing.<br>Moving on, Luigi, who was surprisingly one of the loudest in the room, was M5.  
>His friend, Lucina, whom was joining Female Robin in crowd control, was M6.<br>Yoshi, who was… well, being Yoshi (and that's with the over pronounced O, by the way) was M7.  
>Mega Man, whom was actually being rather cute, for a lack of a better word, shying away, was M8.<br>And Sonic, whose feet were still drumming, albeit quieter, was M9.

Robin smiled to himself. Nothing like a quick recall to get your mind back up to sharp. Both of those whom he knew from his universe, caught that smile.  
>"Imaging actually killing some redshirt, are we?"<br>Before he got a chance to reply, an unfamiliar voice started calmly speaking, loud and clear. Obviously some form of magic, or an intercom system. But that was not to be cared about now.

The voice was, as I said, calm. It spoke in slow, yet soft tones, not at all calculated. It was definitely a male voice, slightly British twang (though not as much as Shulk, though that goes without saying), but sounded as though he had travelled all over Europe, and a lot of America, giving his voice – a strange sound, but one that was neither similar nor dissimilar to any he'd heard before.  
>"Well, I can see you're all awake now. I guess the first things I should say are welcome and apologies for the strange circumstances thus far." Already some people in the room had grown restless shouting at the random voice, Sonic in particular. "Please bear in mind," the voice continued with slight malice, "that I will only say the following once, and I will not be taking questions at the end."<br>Sonic continued to shout. The voice sighed, wearily. "I'm sorry Hedgehog, I will not apologise for what I'm doing, so shut up and… Miss… er… Robin, I see you have done an excellent job crowd controlling thus far. Can you please get him to quieten down?" The mere question was enough to silence the impatient hedgehog.

_Hmph. Well, as I said, what I am about to say, will only be said once. I know that some of the older of you will be aware of something known as the Nonary Game.  
><em>Robin knew of it, and a chill ran down his spine. He hadn't been involved, but he had read the file. It was a… unethical event, that was for sure.  
><em>Anyway, I think a couple of you have suspected that this is a mock-up of that project, and I can confirm – you're right. However, I should make a few things clear. Whilst, indeed, I can be referred to as LM-Zero, or simply as, Zero, I am not among you, and neither is someone who associates with me.<br>_Robin was confused at the designation. 'LM-0'? What did the 'L' mean?  
><em>Also, and this should be a relief, no-one can die in this game. I mean, of course – You are still under the protection of the Core. Now, that brings up a question – and down a few tightened shoulders *chuckle* - am I acting under the authority of the Hands? Well… I suppose I am. Anyway, enough of the disclaimer chit-chat – oh, and yes, I don't own any of you. And don't call me out on breaking the walls down, I can name one or two, you know. Anyway, I guess I should explain how this is going to work. First thing I should explain the rules to this game.<em>

· There are two sets of participants. Each set has numbered participants, one to nine.

· These bracelets are the mystery readings on the bracelets.

· There are numbered doors. Any number of people can enter a door, as long as:

A)The combined digital root matches the doors number.

B)The circle is coloured blue. Red means you're inactive and green means "in room".

· If you're pulse drops to zero, you'll be returned to your doom room.

· Each of you has a partner in the other set. Each set has something to connect them, and working out this connection allows you to communicate. This will be required for some of the rooms.

· At a time, you may find that you have no number. This actually means you cannot enter any other door than your partner, or, in the case of the two Mages, your counterpart.

· All doors must be opened. That which was promised that short time ago can only be bestowed if the path is unobstructed.

"That which was promised?"

The voice broke his vow not to answer a question. "You're a smart man, Robin. You'll figure it out eventually. Anyway, I feel I have provided enough information for now. You'll find out more as you go. Anyway, in 10 minutes, the door to the main area will open. Use that time to think. After all, you need to find a connection somehow, no? Here's a hint – Heroism, Friendship, Denial, Obscurity, Hope, Silence, Truth, Time and Spirit – These things connect us all." With those words, the voice disappeared again.

Robin tried to take it all in. What still puzzled him was "That which was promised"… did that mean that there was some sort of reward… then again, the Nonary Game, when it was conducted as a research project. Research for a reward, huh? Did that mean that there was research being done into something that had been promised to them..?

"Hey, Dark?" Samus was looking at the aforementioned angel, who had been quiet since the Voice started speaking, and, now that everyone looked, he was shaking. "Dark?"  
>He suddenly stopped shivering, and looked Samus in the eye. He smiled, almost naturally. Of course, Samus was taken aback. Slowly, Dark Pit started to talk, not with the words of a deranged madman, but with the careful selection of a wiser being.<br>"The bonds that tie us… Strange, that how, yet my life is a lie, I am bound by truth, huh?"  
>… Confused faces.<br>"What I mean to say is… I found my partner. And I bet you can guess who."


End file.
